The present invention relates to a door module intended to constitute a vehicle door.
In conjunction with the production and assembly of vehicle doors intended for goods vehicles, for example, an effort is made to employ simple and rational methods which can make production more efficient and reduce the necessary assembly time in the factory. In accordance with the prior art, production of vehicle doors takes the form of the step-by-step assembly on a door frame of individual components such as opening rods, locking rods, handles, window regulators and associated motors, reinforcement beams, loudspeakers, etc.
The traditional method of assembly is time-consuming, however, and also requires all the individual components to be capable of assembly and functional testing by the final manufacturer of the door. One possible approach to rationalizing production would involve producing the vehicle door in modules, which are then assembled together to produce a finished door. A module of this kind may include one or preferably a plurality of components for providing the functions that the vehicle door is required to exhibit. A vehicle door must, however, exhibit a seal which separates a wet side and a dry side of the door, and in conjunction with the use of a module, this seal thus requires to be arranged between an outer door part and a module of this kind which contains the components of the door in order to ensure that the components of the module that are situated on the side of the module that constitutes the inside of the door are not exposed to moisture. Due to the presence of this seal between the wet side and the dry side, and a panel extending around the periphery of the door which constitutes the end wall of the door, there is no access to the space that might otherwise-exist between the module and the outer part of the door after the module has finally been installed on the outer door part. There is thus no possibility, once assembly of the module on the outer door part is complete, of arranging or assembling some other component between the outer door part and the module. This means that the attachment, if required, of an individual component on the outer door part, such as an external handle, and of an individual component on the module, such as an opening rod, must take place before the outer door part and the module in its entirety are connected together so that the necessary sealing is obtained between the wet side and the dry side of the door.
As a consequence of the fact that the door must also be made theft-proof, an external handle on the door must extend through an aperture in the door and must be connected to an opening rod on the inside of the outer part of the door. The opening rod is included in an opening and closing mechanism for opening and closing the vehicle door. Connecting together the opening road and the external handle is a relatively complicated and time-consuming assembly stage. Such assembly calls for a number of manual operations on the part of an assembly worker, and the assembly procedure is more complicated if the opening and closing mechanism is arranged on a module which must then be connected together with an outer part of the door because, on the one hand, access to the space between the module and the outer part of the door is severely restricted when the outer part of the door and the module are positioned close to one another, and, on the other hand, the module must be placed within a specific maximum distance from the outer part of the door if there is to be any possibility at all of connecting the external handle and the opening rod to one another.
It is desirable to make available a door module of the kind defined by way of introduction, which door module can reduce substantially at least one or other of the discussed disadvantages of previously disclosed vehicle doors, so that the assembly of a vehicle door and its components can be performed in a time-saving fashion and/or with the need for fewer manual operations by an assembly worker.
A distinctive feature, namely that the operating device is provided with the first of two interacting snap-in connection parts, both of which snap-in connection parts together constitute a snap-in connection for the automatic connection of the operating device and a handle provided with the second snap-in connection part that is intended respectively for closing and opening a vehicle door constituted by means of the door module, means that the necessary connection of the opening and closing mechanism in the door module together with a handle in a vehicle door can be accomplished without the need for an assembly worker manually to connect together an opening rod and a handle. An outer door part provided with a handle can instead be attached to the door module for the purpose of constituting the vehicle door, and the necessary sealing between the wet side and the dry side of the door can be achieved, after which the opening and closing mechanism in the module can be connected automatically to the handle. By means of the automatic snap-in connection, the opening and closing mechanism and the handle can be connected together, after having been positioned appropriately in relation to one another, simply by causing them to move towards one another until they are a specific mutual distance apart. This in turn opens the way for the effective use of a pre-assembled multi-component module, which can be subjected to functional testing in respect of all the components, both individually and together, before the door module can be finally assembled in a simple fashion in a vehicle door.
The invention also relates to a vehicle door and a method for connecting together an operating device for a closing and opening mechanism and a handle in a vehicle door.